Everybody Let's take Kimberly
Check it Google it spring ahead is next week. Oh It might have
been the day. I've dropped the ball. Let everybody
know let's turn to Exodus chapter 3 Exodus chapter 3 The story that we're going to
be looking at for this hour and the next is one that we all know
very well. A lot of people on earth know. A lot of people quote these These
stories and parables and the things that the Lord has recorded
in his word. But I pray he'll make them new
to us today. In Exodus chapter 3, I pray he'll
make them new to us today. I say this often, and this is
real important. This is really important. I say
it a lot. This is really important. Exodus
chapter 3 will begin in verse 1. 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, 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, while the bush was 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. And he
said, draw not nigh hither, put off thy shoes from off thy feet
for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. I pray we could see this as holy
ground this morning. Moreover, he said, I am the God
of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of
Jacob. And Moses hid his face for he was afraid to look upon
God. We will see Moses as a picture
and a type of Christ throughout his life. We already have and
we will as we go through Exodus on different occasions. But today
I want us to see Moses as a picture of every child of God. Hmm. Preachers used to get up and
say, all believers do this. All believers say this. All believers
experience this. And you know what I'd do? I'd
sit on the edge of my seat and I'd listen. And I'd say, is that
me? I don't care about what else is going on. Is this going to
be important to me? Is that me? Is that you? Is that
me? This here is a picture of every
believer. Well, that ain't a picture of me. I wasn't talking to you.
It's for God, people. It's for his sheep. What we just
read is immaculate. It's His Word. This is for us
that believe, us that find Him precious. Verse 1 says, I pay
attention to that common salvation. Is it common to me? Is that the
same one I got? 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 into the
mountain of God to hoard. Moses was likely 80 years old
when this took place. His first 40 years, he was just
given to luxury and education and the fine things of this life. And he had a carnal conviction
for God's people. He had just a fleshly, this isn't
him doing something good. This wasn't a fabulous milestone
in his sojourn. He had a carnal conviction to
stand up for God's people, and he slew an Egyptian. And then
he got scared, and he ran away. He thought, I'm gonna serve God
today. No, you ain't. No, you ain't. And I thought,
who could teach a 40-year-old anything? I'll be 44 this year. I ain't listening to nobody.
I kid at vice, left, right, and center. I ain't gonna hate it.
And I thought, Bob, when I get 80, You reckon I'll listen then? Definitely not. Not this one. Lord gets Moses where he's 80
years old. 40 more years has passed and
he's broke down a little bit more and he's calmed down some,
but at this point in his life, all Moses was looking for was
to just put his time in to raise his children and retire and relax
some. He just wanted to be his own
man. This is what he'd hashed out his whole life. He was born
in a heathen land. He was raised not by his biological
parents, but he was raised by a heathen adopted mother and
a heathen grandfather. And he tried to enter the ministry
of his own deciding. He thought himself or man ordained
people when God ordained people. And he ended up on the backside
of the desert, married to a heathen woman with a religious heathen
father. Well, he's a priest. He's a priest. with a heathen father-in-law.
And that median, that word means contention. It means brawling.
Remember? And he's an operative shepherd.
That's his given occupation. And he does not know God. Is that any of us? Anybody here
been born into a heathen land, into a heathen family, and everything
around you is just false religion, and you didn't know God, and
you had no interest in Him. You just wanted to cruise on
to retirement and die, and do whatever happens whenever you
die. Just have it easy till the end. Tell stories of how good
it used to be. I used to have it good. I used
to be in the king's palace. I used to be in line for the
throne. But this is God's mountain. This
is God's mountain. Horeb is where God will give
Moses the law. He said, I'm gonna bring you right back here, and
I'm gonna give you law, and that's gonna prove to you I am who I
say I am. Everything I say is what comes
to pass. That schoolmaster is that mountain. That's what's
gonna bring us to God. And he got Moses alone. God's
about to save him. Do we have any interest in salvation
by a holy God that we've offended? that we've sinned against. Are
we interested in those things? God's about to save Moses, and
this is what happens to everybody God saves. He's about to get
him alone. God must get us alone. Just like
those blind and deaf folks that he healed. He'd take them off
to, out of the city. It's mountains out in the middle
of nowhere. And I thought every gospel church I can think of,
I'm probably missing one, where are they at? Are they right in
downtown in the high rise? No, they're off to the, you have
a hard time finding them. It's where God meets his people,
isn't it? If you hear a message and the Lord's gonna speak to
him, he's gonna give him along, he's gonna speak to him. And
there's times I've heard messages, and I'm sure somebody else has
too, and you say, that preacher's singling me out. If you hear a message, you say,
that preacher's singling me out. Maybe he ain't, maybe God is.
Maybe God's speaking to you. Well, I don't like what he said.
Maybe you ought to go see if that's what God says. Might just be the Lord speaking
to you. Might be that the Lord's about to reveal himself to you.
Let's pay attention now. Verse two. Let's see what God
has to say. 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. What's
Moses right now? The answer right there. I just
read it. You keep looking. He's an observer. The angel of the Lord came to
Moses, and Moses is just an observer. The angel of the Lord, the Lord
Jesus Christ, is who it is that appeared to Moses. And he didn't
say anything yet. This was presented, but not yet
spoken. He had come in contact with this
angel of the Lord, had appeared to him, but he hadn't said his
name yet. Everyone in this room is listening.
I hope. I pray the Lord will make us
hear. Make us hear. I knew a man at 13th Street that
took diligent notes, and I thought, I wanna be like that man. I mean,
he just had notebooks after notebooks after notebooks, and he wrote
everything down. And I thought, man, just what a strong believer
that is. And you know what happened one day? He set that notebook
down, and he started bawling, because God saved him. He'd listened this whole time,
and God made him to hear. Right now, Moses is just observing. He just happens to be in the
right place where the Lord is, right? That's his app, like Ruth. God's about to turn his ears
on. He's about to hear. My pastor texts me, he said,
I think today's the day. The Lord's gonna save some folks.
People's going, here! He's gonna give them ears to
hear. It's today, it's gotta be. Make us hear. Verse three, Moses
said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight while the
bush is not burnt. He just so happened to be there.
He just so happened to see that, isn't it? The lot is cast in
the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. Moses
started out saying, I turned aside one day. One day I was
driving along and I happened to see this church or that church
or this place. I happened to tune the radio
one day. There was this man preaching on it or whatever. That's gonna
turn into one day the Lord turned me. God stopped me dead in my
tracks and he spoke to me. He revealed his son to me and
he spoke to me. We'll stop giving ourselves credit
and start giving God credit for it. It'll happen if we're his.
It'll happen. There was a man in Kansas preaching
one time. Me and Kareem was there when
I stationed. And he was preaching and he said, aren't you just
so glad that Abraham chose to take Isaac up that mountain?
I thought he was making a sarcastic point. And so I gave him some
time, and I gave him a little more time. And it finally ended,
he was a guest there, and that pastor got up, and I thought,
if he don't rebuke him immediately and say, everything you said
was works, and you'll die and go to hell believing that. And he
did, and he said, you're welcome in town anytime. I said, get
your purse. We're leaving. Last time I was
sitting in that place. We're leaving, I ain't hearing
that. The Lord changes the language, they speak plainly. Who did the
workin', and who did the findin', and who found, not that I finally
found what was right, it's that I've been wrong the whole time,
and God's right. I've sinned, and everything I did was wrong.
He's workin' on him. Do you want to know why this
bush is not consumed? If it was consumed, if that bush
burnt, it would be corrupted, right? It wouldn't be a bush
anymore. It would have corruption put on it. This was a chaparral
bush. Boy, we ought to pay attention
to this. Look out that window. You'll see a bunch of them. It's
nothing fancy. It was just a little one. And
what's it good for? I don't want to hear about the
medicinal purposes. It's good for burning. I'm a firefighter
from the state of Kentucky. I look out there and you know
what I see? Look at those beautiful hills. I see fuel. That's waiting
to burn. We've had a rainy season. There'll
be a bunch of fuel this year, huh? It's fuel. It serves just
like all the other bushes. If you light it on fire, poof,
it's gone. And Moses looked on this bush,
and this bush was not consumed. It was on fire like he'd seen
bushes in the mountains burned before. But it wasn't extinguishing. But the bush wasn't damaged.
It ain't quitting. I want to see what that means.
I want to look upon this. That's what he wanted to look
upon. Well, we ought to, too. This one was different, wasn't
it? That flame was on this undesirable bush that nobody thinks nothing
of, and yet it didn't wither, and it didn't turn aside, it
didn't move, it didn't sway, its face was set like a flint.
What's this bush? Who's this bush? Who's this? Turn it, this is beautiful. Turn
over to Luke 23. I think the Lord gave me some
light on this and I'll probably read what some fellow 300 years ago
wrote this down next week. Luke 23. Look here in verse 26. This is the crucifixion of our
Lord. Luke 23 verse 26, And as they
led him away, they laid hold upon one Simon, a Cyrenian, coming
out of the country, and on him they laid the cross, that he
might bear it after Jesus. And there followed him a great
company of people and of women, which also bewailed and lamented. But Jesus turning unto them said,
Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, that weep for yourselves
and for your children. For behold, the days are coming
in which they shall say, blessed are the barren and the wombs
that never bare and the paps which never gave suck. Then shall
they begin to say to the mountains, fall on us and to the hills,
cover us. Remember us, look at that Wednesday
when the Lord comes again, what the desolate and the barren and
the reprobate will say. Why is that so scary to them?
For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done
in the dry? If the fire, the judgment of
God because of sin is cast on his son because he bore our sin
and our grief, what do you think he's going to do to you? his
holy perfect son that he sent his son to be a propitiation
for us, to be that bloody accepted sacrifice. If he saw our sin
on him and killed him and sent his fire down to kill him, his
judgment against him, that cup of indignation, what do you think
he's gonna do to somebody that's standing alone before God? Moses saw that bush burning.
That's where the fire was landed, but it wasn't consumed. It didn't
see corruption. It was still pure, but life was
still in it. It died, but it lived. Explain
that bush, Moses. I can't explain how, how the
Lord Jesus Christ died. And, and, and the father said,
I will not leave a soul in hell. And he, he bore that for us and
he's ascended and hit. So just as much as that bush
was there, burning it. So. If I'm a bush, if I ain't nothing
but dry chaparral, I'll just burn. This one's different. This
one's like me. Made like me. Something's different
about it. Something's different. The Lord
recorded there in Matthew 3, John the Baptist, he said, I
indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but he that
cometh after me is mightier than I, than I, whose shoes I'm not
worthy to bear. He shall baptize you with the
Holy Ghost and with fire. whose fan is in the hand, he
will thoroughly purge his floor and will gather his weed in the
garner, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."
Why are we not burned? He was burned for us and lives.
He's risen. That's why he bore all that grief
and sorrow and shame and guilt for us. And he reigns and we
reign in him. Bildad asked, how then can a
man be just with God, or how can a clean thing that's born
of woman, how could that be? Here it is. That bush wasn't
burnt, it wasn't consumed. That burning bush wasn't consumed.
Lord said, I'm the vine, you're the branches. What kind of bush
am I? I'm the vine, you're the branches. He that abideth in
me and I in him, the same bring forth much fruit. For without
me, you can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he's
cast forth as a branch and is withered, and men gather them
and cast them into the fire, and they're burned." They're
burned. I was, Kierma was reading Dawn
this morning, on the day they're reading about, this body will
be buried as my Lord's body was buried. And it ain't gonna make
me go to heaven or not go to heaven if I'm cremated. But because
I know better, I want to do better. He suffered that fire for me.
This body ain't going to burn. I'm going to be buried as fast.
I may die in a house fire, but if I have my druthers, knowing
what he's showed me in his scripture, that's what I'm going to do.
That fire's for his enemies. He bore that for us, didn't he?
Christ suffered that fire of the Lord's judgment and of sin,
and yet he lives. He arose from that tomb. And
the Father commanded, said, roll the rock away. payments accomplished
for him and everybody in him. Who have believed our report?
Who's believed that? Well, this is just some kind of miracle
that happened in the desert. He saw a bush burning. Hmm. And he said, I
am. Then go do something to Pharaoh.
I don't know. Who's believed this? Who is the arm of the Lord
revealed? Who's his strength revealed to?
For he shall grow up before them as a tender plant and as a root
out of dry ground. What's that chaparral? What kind
of dirt is that in? It ain't dirt or rock, is that in? Dry
ground, isn't it? You ever pull one of them things
up and looked at the root? I dug one up the first year we
was here and I just kept digging and digging and digging. That's
a gnarly looking taproot on the bottom of that thing. Them bushes
that's out there on these hillsides. Undesirable, isn't it? He hath
no form nor comeliness. And when we see him, we will
see no beauty that we should desire him. That root of Jesse. And in that
day, there should be a root of Jesse, which shall stand as an
ensign. What's an ensign? A flag. What's
flag? Nisi. Our banner, Jehovah Nisi. Jehovah's witness this morning.
Y'all get that email? Hobanese, tell who he is of the
people and the Gentiles shall seek and his rest shall be glorious. This undesirable root, this undesirable
bush that was burnt but wasn't consumed. People don't care. So God reveals himself and speaks
our name. He was despised and rejected
of men, a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. As it was, we hid
our faces from him. We didn't esteem him, but he's
borne our grief and carried our sorrows. And yet we did assume
him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. He was wounded
for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, and by the
chastisement of our peace was upon him. That fire was upon
him. And with his stripes, by him being the one that suffered
that, we're healed. We're healed. Paul said, for
we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you
by us, we pray you in Christ's stead. Be reconciled to God. How are we gonna be reconciled
to God? Four, because, how are you gonna be reconciled? Because
he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. Back to our text. Exodus chapter
three, look at verse four. When the Lord saw that he turned
aside to see, I've heard blasphemous things. Well, God was just waiting
on him to come to him. No, the Lord speaks in a language
we can understand. Our puny minds can't wrap around
these things. He was right where he wanted
him, right when he wanted him. There was no doubt about it.
To the second. 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. Called
by name. Called by name. There's a general
call that goes forth. I broadcast a seed. I don't know
where it's gonna land. I shoot arrows per adventure.
I don't know what the Lord's doing. I know generally he's
gonna save his people, but the inner workings of daily things,
I have no idea. I don't know what goes on in
y'all's lives. I don't talk to y'all most of the week. But that general call goes forth.
He's holy, man's not. Behold your God. All flesh is
grass. He's majestic. Bow to him. Mercy's found only in his son.
And then there's a effectual call when the Lord will take
that and pierce somebody's heart and melt them. That's what the
scripture says, right? They're like, well, that was
kind of nice. He's gonna just, they'll be tore up from the floor,
just consume them. And he's gonna melt their hearts. And he'll make it effectual.
And that moves like the wind. We don't see it coming, we can't
really tell where it's coming from or where it's going, and
it moves where it's listed. That's how the Lord works, isn't
it? But he called Moses by name. Moses, Moses. And he said, here
am I. One-on-one, an effectual call. What's that mean? It gets the
job done. He didn't try to save nobody. He saved him. He didn't
try to make Moses hear him. He heard him because he spoke.
He spoke. The Lord gets his people on his
mountain. What's that mountain? That's
his church, isn't it? Isn't it? He said a city that sit on a
hill cannot be hid. That's where he speaks to his
people. That's where he speaks to the heart of his people. Not
in their deer stands and not in their cars where they're doing
85 miles an hour and hitting bumps and ads coming through
and they can hit pause or hit play as they see fit. He gets
them where a man speaks and there's a one-way conversation from God
through a donkey's mouth to their hearts. What does the Lord show them? If he sends his spirit today,
what's he gonna show you? He's gonna show you something.
He's gonna reveal himself. He's gonna reveal something to
you, isn't he? Look at verse 5. I grew up hearing about the law
of first mention. I deleted that out of my notes
this morning and I wrote the rule of first mention. Lord gives
law, man don't. But what's that mean? Normally
whenever you get the context of a word from the first time
it's mentioned in the scriptures. Did you know this year is the
first place that holy is mentioned? We made it all the way through
Genesis. The word holy has not been recorded in his word yet.
So the context of when the God says holy has to do with this. What's going on? A bush is burning
and it's not consumed. We could spend eons learning
about that. and not scratch the surface.
This is important to God. It's important to us. He said,
you take your shoes off from your feet. Where you're standing,
this is holy ground. This is holy ground. Take your
shoes off. What's that mean? Should we all
be barefoot when we come in here to this place we're renting to
worship God? No. That ain't what he's talking
about. Remember when he washed the feet
of his disciples? That was a picture of us walking
through this world. Remember? That's my job, isn't it? Remember?
We walked through this world. He said, the whole of you is
holy. You're washed through and through. But your feet's dirty.
Because that's what's in this earth. We should put those things
off. What do we have that's dirty
on us? I just thought about shoes all week. What's that do? That
protects us, doesn't it? That's my protection. He says,
take your protection off. Well, these are what I purchased.
They're really expensive shoes. Not these, and I need new ones.
I worked hard to get those. Throw it away. I've had good
experiences in these shoes. I've walked a long time in these
shoes. He said, you're going to have
to be naked to walk through this gate. Take it off. I'm going to be the one
to close you. Moses got a pair of shoes after this, didn't he?
How long did they last him? 40 more years. Just like the children
of Israel. Made it all the way through that desert, didn't they?
I bet that's comfy. I've had a pair of shoes for
a long time and I made about eight years I think. They're
real comfy. They finally wore out, I had to get rid of them.
And I didn't want to. And I got new ones just like them. And
you know they didn't fit good? They're just now starting to
break in. It's been two years. Take them old comfortable ones
that you had, throw them away. To turn from something to turn
to something else. If we turn from those old religious
experiences and those old church things and all these good times
we had and what we did and what we decided, we're turning to
Christ. We're taking our shoes off. Everything except this world,
I don't need it. I need Him. I need Him. Why? He's holy. He's holy. If I'm
going to be rode, I'm going to be rode in His garments. This
corruption's gonna have to put on incorruption. He's gonna have
to do that. How's that gonna take place?
That's his business. I'll tell you after it's done. I'll tell
you after it's done. He that's washed need not to
say wash his feet. Does that mean clean up your
act? No, put away all your experiences and your idols. Turn from that
nonsense garbage of the traditions of your fathers and bow to a
holy God that gave himself, that provided himself a lamb for us.
What's her response to that? If the Lord gets his people on
the backside of a mountain, where there ain't nothing but undesirable
bushes, and he appears to him and speaks to him or her, to
his child, and says, this is holy, take your shoes off, put
off your garments. What's the response to that?
What's gonna happen if we see his son bore the judgment we
rightly earned? What's the response? Verse six,
moreover, he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face,
for he was afraid to look upon God. He bowed. Oh, don't look
at me. If I look at him, I'll die. He's
holy. He's just, everything he does is right. He don't do what's
right, what he does is right. He's majestic, and I'm everything
that's not that. Just crawl underneath a rock
and hide myself, isn't it? But God's speaking to him. God's
not coming to him in judgment. Judgment's been satisfied. We
still bow, don't we? We hide our face, and we're afraid
to look upon God. Like I told you that before with
children, they learn to, it doesn't say spare the rod, spoil the
child. That's what wicked, reprobates have coerced this earth into
thinking, well, I'm not hating them, I just spoil them a little
bit. The scripts say you spare the rod, you hate your child.
God said so. But as a young child, you whip
them. Their bottoms are padded real good. Lord designed us that
way. And you spank them and they're physically afraid. And as time
goes on and as they mature, they honor their parents. Honor your
mother and father. You don't want to disappoint
them. That's what that translates to, isn't it? When we first see
God's holy and we see what we deserve, we're scared. Terrified,
I mean losing sleep. And then as time goes on, we
honor him. We honor him. This is just the
beginning. This is just the beginning. And Moses is scared. Remember
when you was just terrified that God's gonna kill you? The fear
of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. That's just the beginning.
I'm scared to death. That's good. One. Two, hold on. It'll get better. It'll get more
sweet. And the knowledge of the holy
is understanding. That's Proverbs 9, 10. Wouldn't
that be something? If the Lord came to us, got us
alone, called us by name, showed us what we deserve, what Christ
bore for us, told us that that's holy, his acts are holy, it's
holy ground, everything on this is holy. And we hid our faces
from him. Oh Lord, be merciful. And he
says, now we're getting started. Now we're getting started. I
pray it's a blessing to you. Let's pray to him. Father, be
with us, Lord. Get us alone and speak comfort
to our hearts as only you can. Speak to your children as we
see what we deserve and we have fear. Speak fear not to us. As Christ only can. the only
one worthy to speak that, the only one with the authority to
command such a thing and make us worship. Lord, increase our
wisdom and increase our understanding of your holiness and keep us
as you promised you will. Lord, save your people and comfort
them and forgive us our unbelief. It's because of Christ that bush
that burned for us was not consumed and rains We ask these things
We'll meet back at a 1030